Learning lessons the hard way

StopOnlinePetitions.com Launches

2005-04-30T19:39:00.000+10:00

For years, online petitions have plagued the Internet. They spam our mailboxes and message boards, but they never accomplish anything. Finally, a dedicated site to fighting online petitions has been created. Go sign the petition to stop online petitions, and beat them at their own game!

HEY EVERYONE GO HERE AND SIGN!!!!!!!!!! IT IS FUN!!!!!!!!!

I know I haven't done any real posts lately but I have cleaned the side panel up a bit. Also all these posts from http://digg.com are beause I read this site everyday instead of writing insightful entries on my blog. Thanx to Kevin Rose for the great site and mindless distraction :)

read more | digg story

A Giant Leap for Artificial Intelligence?

2005-04-24T21:00:00.000+10:00

In the next few months, after being patiently nurtured for 22 years, an artificial brain called Cyc will be put online for the world to interact with. Opening Cyc up to the masses is expected to accelerate the rate at which it learns, giving it access to web pages, webcams and data entered manually by anyone who wants to contribute.

read more | digg story

Sports events leave a giant 'ecological footprint'

2005-04-19T09:38:00.000+10:00

LARGE sporting events have an "ecological footprint" thousands of times the size of the pitches they are played on. That's according to researchers who have calculated a sporting event's environmental impact for the first time.

read more | digg story

Correction

2004-12-20T11:58:00.000+11:00

It appears that there has been a miscommunication between me and Bruce it appears that the blog linked to wasn't his and instead it was this one. Now that we have that sorted out. Lets move on :-)

Friends

2004-12-20T10:22:00.000+11:00

Last night at work one of my friends said to me "Ben you're so good for my ego". In return I told her that saying that was good for my ego too. I think its important for friends to boost one another's ego and sometimes tell them the things they want to hear. But when is too much? Sometimes we may also need to tell our friends that something shouldn't be done or that they should have done something different. I think that friendship is about knowing when they need an ego boost and when they need to be told something that may hurt them.

My goal for today is to give everyone's ego a good boost because in return they will boost my ego which at the moment could do with a good boost.

The good the bad and the downright hopeless

2004-12-18T17:42:00.000+11:00

Went on a trip to Sydney the other day for Kirstin's birthday. Didn't really want to go but was made to go. I had a good time except for the bloody walking around for hours trying to find somewhere that was decent for a drink. It was quite funny cause once we had enough we got in a cab and found several places that we knew about that were good places to go. Also ended up back in Coogee which turned out to have a big nightclub that was just what we looking for. Oh well.....

Got my Uni results the other day and i was a little disappointed. Even though I didn't get any marks below 70% I must have done really badly in some of my exams cause my marks before them were really good. Oh well maybe next semester (the catch cry of university students).

Big shout out to Bruce for giving me 1250 shares in his blog on blogshares it is muchly appreciated and I love your blog too. Would love to have a chat and see what else we have in common.

No major philosophical discussion today. Have been too busy with work and when not working all I've wanted to do is veg out in front of the box (this is the new opiate for the masses). Maybe the box is the reason why I have not had any philosophical thoughts. Maybe we should all join the campaigns to turn off TV at http://www.tvturnoff.org/index.htm and http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/ and then we all might be more philosophical.

If anyone would like to discuss philosophy and uni (or college for the Americans) or sociology (my major at uni) then please leave me a message and we can start up some dialogue to get things happening.

Happy Blogging

Things to be thankful for

2004-12-08T10:32:00.000+11:00

My recent discussion of capitalism bought a few responses from readers. So it got me thinking..... Is there any real alternative to capitalism. We all know that the main threat used to be communism, but all those countries that still are communist are starting to become more and more capitalist. This in my mind shows that it really isn't a viable alternative to capitalism.

I think the best starting point to thinking through capitalism comes from all the good things about it.

In society today we have so much available to us. We have a wonderful thing called a computer that allows us the opportunity to talk to people from all over the world and through various forms, such as blogs, to share our thoughts and interests with other people. We also have education systems that teach us to think about things in all sorts of ways so that we may form our own opinions on things that really matter to us. We are also able to educate ourselves as much or as little as we want depending on desires to do so.

Now some of the bad things

Sometimes capitalism puts monetary needs above human needs. By this I mean that the goals of capitalism is to make money through more development. Sometimes this means that companies will do things that have a negative impact on some sections of the community. Usually this is done for the greater benefit of the whole of society. Also capitalism is never ending. By this I mean that the capitalists are always looking for more development of capital and thus see no end to development at all. This can go against some of the other thinking that we live in a finite world that is not growing and that cannot handle unending development.

In my thoughts all things have good and bad points. Nothing we create as humans will ever be perfect and I firmly believe that a utopian society is unachievable. I think we should as a society be searching for greater fulfillment rather then a better life. I feel fulfilled when I educate myself and think through all the good thins and the bad things in our society. BY adding to the current knowledge of things I feel fulfilled.

I'm sure other people feel fulfilled in other ways and I think it is important to stop and think everyday about what makes you feel fulfilled and pursue that until you find something else that replaces that feeling. But you must also recognise that you will never ever be completely fulfilled because that is what life is all about.

Thats just some of my thoughts anyway ;)

If anyone else has any thoughts please let me know

Dogboy Lover

2004-12-06T16:25:00.000+11:00

Went to see my friends brothers bands 'the looks' at the Cambridge the other night and this band after called Dogboy lover were really cool and inspired me to blog this.

"Down with capitalism, down with Christmas" he shouted from the mic
Somehow it got me thinking, is it possible to be anti-capitalism?
The boy shouting this works at HMV a big music shop, he was using an apple Mac computer to mix some funky beats, he wore a brand name shirt. The only things I could see that even indicated he may have hippy tendencies is that he wore ripped pants that looked very well worn and his hair was rather unkempt by anyone's standards. So does this mean he is really not anti-capitalism as he so proclaimed before he started? Is it impossible to be anti-capitalism.

that's it for now. More thoughts on capitalism, life, the universe later. I really should blog more and I will try. But I have a hard enough time to remember that I should check my emails :-)

Hope everyone is good out there
BYEBYE

HOLIDAYS

2004-09-29T20:20:00.000+10:00

OMG......... I finally have holidays and it's sooooo nice. The last couple of weeks have been so hectic with all that uni crap you have to do. Anyway now I have two weeks of holidays and no 9am starts and I have two whole days off where I can do nothing. WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!! Can you tell I am excited????? :D

I don't really have anything philosophical or profound to say. Don't have time to do any deep thinking. Maybe in the next day or two I may have something good to say.

Or maybe I might just go to the beach ;)

moonwalkurr. @ Myspace.com

2004-08-29T22:18:00.000+10:00

moonwalkurr. @ Myspace.com

You have to check out this guys video of him dancing to Micheal Jackson. It is very very funny. I think Gay guys are the funniest dancers in the world.

The (Un)Official "Find Krusty on the Web" Web Page - He's a Pathetic Clown"

2004-08-26T18:31:00.000+10:00

The (Un)Official "Find Krusty on the Web" Web Page - He's a Pathetic Clown"

This shows how much I didn't want to do my lab report. I was watching the Simpsons and in the episode a girl proclaiming to be krusty's daughter appears. Krusty quizzes her on how she found him and she replies that her mum told her he was a pathetic clown. She then typed pathetic clown into a search engine and his name popped right up.

After seeing this I thought....... I bet someone's made a page so that when people look up pathetic clown it comes up. Sure enough I typed in into googol and up popped the above site.

Ok I am done procrastinating...... for now

Long time No post

2004-08-19T11:44:00.000+10:00

Ok so its been a long time since I last posted. So a quick update on whats happening

So much bloody uni work to do. It seems to never end. Going on a field trip this saturday to Gloucester Mine, should be fun. Tonight I am going to see regurgitator. Haven't seen them in ages. Actually been a long time since I seen any band live.

Uni, Uni, Uni, Uni........ Did I say that I love Uni???? Shit...... I must have been on drugs

Anyway.... been learning lots of stuff and in my next post I will share with you some of the wonderous things I have been learning. But for now I just wanted to post so everyone knows I am still alive and posting (when uni permits me).

Later

About time

2004-07-18T22:28:00.000+10:00

I am finally going back to university tomorrow and I can't wait. Tomorrow is the biggest day on my timetable and I'm not really liking the 9:00 starts in the morning but I can't wait to start studying again

AM I WEIRD?????

Time

2004-07-17T16:04:00.000+10:00

Has anyone else noticed that as you get older time seems to go quicker?

Is time real or is it different according to how we perceive it.

Think of it this way..... In movies they often slow down time to increase the drama of a moment and so that certain parts of the story can be emphasised. Now apply this to real life and certain events can sometimes seem really quick and others can seem really slow. If you have to work for 5 hours, the first couple usually go quick and then usually the last hour drags on and on. So is this because of our perception of time? Or is it that time really does go at different speeds? Is it just that in some circumstances we stop thinking about time and thus it goes quicker and then when we think about time it goes slowly. Who knows.

Another thing I think is very hard to get your head around is the thought of infinity. Can you imagine living for ever? Time always has a beginning and an end. Day, night. Birth, Death. But could you ever perceive a world in which time did not exist and you were simply there forever?

Time is something we take for granted and we think we know what it is. But do we really?

The 7th Annual Australian Masonry Conference

2004-07-16T08:56:00.000+10:00

Last night I had to do some work at Harbourview for the conference. As I was cleaning I found someone's notes they had taken from the conference. One thing in particular made me interested. Australia has the world's highest per capita use of masonry. WHY????

When I look at our towns and cities I don't see how we could be using more masonry then any other country. I'm sure people attending the conference would be able to give me some reason why. Since we use so much of it, its impact on us is huge. Can you imagine a world without masonry?

Since I barely know anything about it, I can not say much about it. So next time you see some masonry...... Remember that someone has thought long and hard about its use and how it will impact on our lives.

A rant on computers, microsoft, the internet and the endless of cycles

2004-07-10T00:01:00.000+10:00

This is an email I sent to the editor of langalist. Check it out. Its worth the read.

Dear Fred,

I am currently sitting at my computer that is about 4 years old. It was until
about 3months ago using windows 98 as its os. I have noticed that it has been
progressively getting slower and slower and that things are basically starting
to fail (such as my screen which will no longer allow me to shrink). But it got
me thinking..... This computer used to be really good and really fast but
lately I seem to have to add more and more applications just to keep it safe.
It used to be enough just to anti-virus. Now I have anti-virus, firewall,
spybot, ad-aware, spyware blaster, and spywareguard all to keep my computer
safe. Then there is the constant updates for windows and all windows products
in general. It also seems no program you get these days doesn't require updates
at some time or another. All this leads to the need for more power, more hard
drive and ultimately the need for a new computer. It would be so much easier if
you just didn't connect to the net. Then there would be no need for any of the
above mentioned things.

I think in some ways the internet has come to critical mass. Everyone it seems
is connecting daily for all sorts of things. Now is the time when big decisions
about the future direction of the internet are being made. Microsoft is trying
to cover all things related to the net through various programs (witness the
birth of the microsoft firewall) and intergrate them firmly into the os so as
to eliminate the need for third party software. As a result windows itself is
getting bigger and bigger and requiring more and more processing power. Do you
see my point????

The internet breeds the need for better, faster and bigger computers. And
microsoft itself pushes for us all to buy newer computers just to run their
software. When will this crazy cycle end???? Will we ever get a computer that
is fast enough or big enough to hold everything we require for daily use of the
net and other such things???? Or will we all be forced to buy bigger and faster
computers the next time microsoft releases its new os???

OK that's my rant :D

Anyone know of any good computer deals ;)

Useless things on the net

2004-06-30T17:15:00.000+10:00

How many useless things can one person put on their blog or website???? I don't know.... but I'm sure i can find more yet :D

New look

2004-06-30T12:42:00.000+10:00

I had a bit of trouble with my old template. For some reason I lost half of my side panel with my links and archives. I sent an email to support and they said its a known bug that sometimes bits of templates can go missing and that there's nothing you can do. So started putting everything back on and then I suddenly thought I would really like a whole new template. SO I DID.

Its looking much nicer now and in the coming days (I have plenty of time at the moment :D )I am planning on developing it further. Also for all you fellow blogger.com users I recommend you save a copy of your template on your computer so that if anything goes missing you don't have to stress like I did to remember what you used to have on your site.

Yesterday and today

2004-06-29T14:45:00.000+10:00

I'm really looking forward to my next semester of uni. I have two subjects that include field trips which is something that really excites me. I have no idea where they will be to but I'm sure they will be fun. What I'm not looking forward to though is the prospect of doing 4 subjects. Last semester i only did 3 and i found that was just right, but if i only do 3 this semester i will be too far behind. I just hope I don't stress out too much as I don't handle stress very well.

I had an interesting conversation with a lady at a function that I was working at. I was discussing with her what subjects I was doing. I told her i was doing sociology as my major and she said that she had done that as well. She told me not to be worried about prospects after uni as there was heaps I could do with it. That was really good advice. I tell everyone else the same thing and they don't seem to understand. Now I have good evidence that I am right.

Oh well.... I have no idea what I am going to do with myself until uni starts back. I have already spring cleaned my room, organised all my uni stuff. Now there's not much else left for me to do. Maybe I might attempt to do something creative like make some clothes, or do some lino printing. Maybe i might just bludge around and do nothing. Who knows......

IT'S ALL IN THE FUTURE

Untitled Document

2004-06-24T20:28:00.000+10:00

OneEarth

Everyone should watch what these guys have to say. The year 2000 campaign (which i just saw on TV) is absolutely amazing and makes you really stop and think. All people on this planet need to stop and think about what they are doing to this planet. One day we just might get the answer we seek

OK!OK!OK! I will get off my soap box now :D

2004-06-23T15:34:00.000+10:00

Why oh why would you walk out on your balcony half naked if you were david beckham. He certainly knows the paparazzi follo his every move so surely he would know they would photo him if he walks out half nude

What do you want?

2004-06-21T17:14:00.000+10:00

It's amazing how fast time can go. It seems like only yesterday I was starting in my first term of university. Now all I have left are exams and I have barely even studied for them. OOPS!!!!! Anyway that's not why I am writing.......

I have been thinking lately about how things seem to happen on their own. I mean I never planned to go to university so late in life. In fact I never planned to go at all ;) But now that I have started I don't want it to end. So much so that I now plan to be at Uni for the rest of my life. So now for the really "deep" part.......

Is it possible to plan your life from start to finish and expect for all those things you plan to happen to actually happen? Or is it more likely that the plan will fail and you will find other things that you never thought you wanted to do? I never planned on doing a science degree when I first started thinking about doing a degree. But somehow I have managed to enrol in environmental science. Now I love these courses and they have turned out to be some of my most enjoyable subjects.

My parting thought for today is this....... Each day doesn't just bring new opportunities....... It brings more then that........ It brings new paths for us to explore..... I like to think of it like exploring....... This world is huge and the amount of ideas, people, places, experiences we can have is amazing. What is the meaning of life? It is to experience as it is only humans that have the power to experience things the way we do and to give meaning to those experiences. So go out tomorrow and experience as much as you can.

Welcome to the wonderful world of holidays

2004-06-05T16:29:00.000+10:00

Today has been my first Saturday off in almost a year and I don't know what to do with myself. I could go out for dinner or go out with some friends. Or I could just stay home. But i feel like i am wasting my saturday off if I don't do something.

More then likely i will just watch tv or surf the web. Exciting arn't I :)

I hate Computers

2004-06-02T23:09:00.000+10:00

I have spent the last month trying to get my laptop to work again all to no avail. In the end I gave up and decided I would take it to someone else to get working for me. So there it sat dejected in my room for at least 2 weeks, waiting for me to fix it. Today I finally thought I would have one last try at getting it to work and within two hours I had it working. AND IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOO SIMPLE!!!!!

Why is it that the simple things are the ones we think of last. I could have been using my laptop instead of this piece of shit computer. But no I have had to put up with the shit computer and the inconvenience of having to sit at a desk instead of sprawling on my bed ralaxing and watching TV.

Has anyone else noticed how much time we spend on something that is supposed to be saving us time??????

Behind Big Brother Australia - The REAL alternative for BB4 news, rumours and commentary

2004-05-12T01:18:00.000+10:00

Behind Big Brother Australia - The REAL alternative for BB4 news, rumours and commentary

Oh my god big brother is addictive. Just spent the last hour reading posts on this site. Should be doing my essay...... OOPS!!!!!!